"We've got plenty of room." said David Greene, quarterback for the Bulldogs' 2002 SEC championship team. "We wish we could have one every year."

It's been six years since Shockley and a 13th-ranked Georgia team beat No. 3 LSU, 34-13.

Georgia is finally back in the SEC title game. Murray has his chance to cement his place in Bulldog' lore with his own championship when the No. 12 Bulldogs go up against top-ranked LSU on Saturday in Atlanta.

"Championships is all that matters," Murray said. "When people talk about stats or this and that, I think the biggest stat is how many championships you've won. My goal is to win a few while I'm here, and my first opportunity is this weekend."

The redshirt sophomore leads the Southeastern Conference and is 14th nationally in passing efficiency. His 32 touchdown passes broke Matthew Stafford's school record of 25, rank seventh nationally and are 10 more than anyone else in the SEC.

The Tampa native completed 19 of 29 passes for 252 yards with four touchdowns in Saturday's 31-17 win at Georgia Tech. He's thrown 14 touchdowns with two interceptions in the last four games.

"I told him after the Tech game, 'You're just killing it right now,'" said Shockley, who talks to Murray by phone about every week. "After we were talking about it for a while, he came back and was like, 'There's so many more I missed. It could be 40.' That tells you what kind of guy he is and what he's thinking. That's not enough. He's a perfectionist kind of guy. You've got to love that from a quarterback."

Murray has completed 61.0 percent of his passes and thrown for 2,446 yards after completing 61.1 percent and 3,049 yards last year.

Getting better

"He's played pretty good all year long," Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "I mean, there's been some moments in time when he hasn't played as good as we would like. But I like what he's done all season long. You wish your quarterback would be hot as a firecracker every time he drops back and throws it. I don't know if anybody is that accurate. He does hit some streaks where he's on fire, and he'll make a lot of outstanding throws, and he's had a lot of help from his receivers too making plays."

Greene threw 22 touchdowns in Georgia's 2002 SEC championship season. He was named title game MVP after completing 17 of 29 for 237 yards and one touchdown in the 30-3 win over Arkansas for Georgia's first SEC title in 20 years.

"The '02 game we were just playing so well at the end of the year, it kind of reminded me a little bit of this team this year," Greene said. "We started out not playing that well against Clemson but we won (31-28), but we just kept getting better and better as the year went on. We were just playing with a lot of confidence. We were all on the same page."

Greene returned to the SEC championship game in 2003, but LSU won 34-13 en route to the BCS title.

"I prefer to think about the '02 game rather than the '03," Greene said.

Shockley waited behind Greene until his redshirt senior year to finally start in 2005.

Big game for Shockley

He got Georgia off to a fast start against LSU with touchdown passes of 45 and 29 yards to Sean Bailey and later scored on a 7-yard touchdown run in the 34-14 upset.

"It was huge for me personally just because all the stuff that was said before the season, could I get it done?" Shockley said. "It was kind of satisfaction to say, `Hey I did have the ability with guys around me to make this thing work.'"

Winning an SEC title sticks with a quarterback.

Shockley said when he spoke to the Savannah Quarterback Club earlier this month, he was introduced as SEC championship quarterback and SEC championship MVP.

Greene and Shockley, both now out of the NFL, will be appearing later this week at the SEC FanFare at the World Congress Center in Atlanta.

Murray and the Bulldogs go up against LSU at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Georgia Dome.

"He's got Georgia back to the SEC championship game," Shockley said. "We actually talked about that, and I was telling him about the last time we played LSU and he said, 'Oh, yeah I remember.' Being MVP, I told him you've got something to live up to."

ON THE WEB

SEC Coverage

Go to savannahnow.com/sports for live pregame and postgame coverage of the SEC Championship game. Friday at noon the SEC coaches luncheon with Georgia's Mark Richt and LSU's Les Miles will be streamed live, followed by the pregame press conference at 1:30 p.m. The postgame press conference with reactions and comments from coaches and players will be streamed live immediately after the game.

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